A non-servo drum brake provides a support assembly on a backing plate to pivotally anchor a pair of brake shoes. A hydraulic actuator is engageable with the pair of brake shoes to pivot the brake shoes about the support assembly from a rest position to a braking position. An adjustable strut extends between the pair of brake shoes to compensate for lining wear and a parking arm cooperates with the strut to move the pair of brake shoes to the braking position during a parking brake application.
The non-servo drum brake is frequently used as a rear brake on vehicles with front wheel disc brakes. The non-servo rear drum brake is sufficient to assist the front wheel disc brakes in stopping the vehicle. It is designed to develop less torque than the disc brake to reduce the chance of wheel skidding. A problem exists during a parking brake mode because the rear non-servo drum brake is required to hold the vehicle stationary without any assistance from the front wheel disc brake. One solution to this problem is to free the support assembly during a parking brake mode as taught by U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12,991, filed on Feb. 21, 1979. Such an arrangement converts the non-servo drum brake to a Duo-Servo (trademark) drum brake only during a parking brake application.